Archeologists have discovered the remains of two dozen children apparently sacrificed by priests who slashed their throats and offered their blood to the rain god Tlaloc, researchers said on Tuesday. The discovery at a former Toltec settlement indicates that child sacrifice predated the Aztecs, an advanced civilization conquered by the Spanish in the 16th century, and was fairly commonplace. Dating to about 950 to 1150, the bones of the children were found on the outskirts of the Toltec archaeological zone of Tula, said Luis Gamboa, an archaeologist for the National Institute of Anthropology and History. The sacrificed children ranged from age 5 to about 15. "They had some incisions on the vertebrae that suggested they had used some sort of (stone) to cut their throats, not so much to cut off their heads, but rather, it appears, to cut the jugular and bleed them to death," Gamboa said. ... http://abcnews.go.com

Shootouts involving drug gangs and police Tuesday left at least 20 alleged gang members dead and sent mourners in a cemetery fleeing from gunfire, officials said. The deaths are the latest in an upsurge of killing that has made Rio de Janeiro one of Brazil's most violence-plagued cities with an annual homicide rate of around 50 per 100,000 residents. Most of the killings have occurred in the city's more than 600 shantytowns, controlled primarily by heavily armed drug gangs. At least 14 alleged drug gang members were killed in an hours-long shootout in the Mineira shantytown near Rio De Janeiro's downtown district, said a police spokeswoman who declined to be identified according to department policy. "We're not finished wrapping up the operation, the number could rise higher still," she said. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3050961

Battling high winds, 25-foot ice walls, mechanical breakdowns and whiteout conditions, a Canadian military team, including Eskimo reservists, last week completed a 17-day trek designed to sustain Canada's claim to sovereignty over the high Arctic. "One night was so bad our escort planes couldn't land, and we were out of fuel and kerosene," said Maj. Chris Bergeron, 48, who led the expedition. "But they flew over the storm until there was an opening for our resupply." Conditions at times were so poor that it took hours simply to pitch a tent, Maj. Bergeron added. "The last day, it was like someone was trying to stop us from achieving our goal." Canada has always fiercely guarded its sovereignty over its Arctic archipelago the triangle of more than 36,500 islands that reaches from its Arctic coast almost to the North Pole. Some of the islands are no larger than a man could stand on, while others, like Baffin Island, are nearly the size of France....http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20070416-114444-5697r.htm

Federal authorities filed a criminal charge Tuesday against the driver of a sport utility vehicle that crashed in southeastern Utah, killing eight illegal immigrants packed inside.Rigoberto Salas-Lopez, 30, was charged with one count of transporting illegal immigrants resulting in death. Eight of the 14 people in the Chevy Suburban died after it rolled several times on U.S. 191 a few hours before dawn Monday.Authorities determined that the driver and passengers were from Guatemala and Mexico. Salas-Lopez was arrested after fleeing into the desert after the crash in the Four Corners area of Utah, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado. He said he was given the vehicle by a man in Phoenix who offered him $1,000 to drive the people to St. Louis from Phoenix, according to an affidavit by Timothy Chard, an agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement....http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18160513/

Astronomy lecturers are taking umbrage at being ousted from Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. A $93 million, four-year makeover of the art deco landmark was followed by a restaffing for planetarium shows. For many years, pedigreed astronomers, mathematicians and teachers gave hourlong lectures on topics such as the Big Bang theory and moon landings, and took questions from the audience. Now, young actors are hitting the highlights in 22-minute presentations. ``It's reopening as an astronomical version of Disneyland,'' said James Somers, 57, an astronomer who wasn't invited back when the observatory resumed operations in November. ``To be replaced by people who don't know about the subject is a travesty.'' Somers, an astronomy professor at Moorpark College near Los Angeles, had worked at the observatory for 27 years. He joined another ex-lecturer in filing an unfair labor practices complaint against the city, which owns the facility. ...http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aaIGMSBXecjg&refer=exclusive

A fast-moving "monster" fire in southeastern Georgia has blackened 10,000 acres of forest, destroyed a mobile home and was threatening the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refugee, a haven for alligators, bears and wading birds, officials said Tuesday. The fire started Monday when a tree fell on a power line near Waycross. Pushed by the winds, it forced more than 70 families from their homes and raced through drought-parched forests into the northwest corner of the Okefenokee, one of the nation's oldest and best preserved wetland areas, officials said. "It was jumping county roads and highways," said Neal Edmondson, a fire official with the Georgia Forestry Commission. "It was just a monster." As a precaution, firefighters ordered the evacuation of the Okefenokee Swamp Park, a private park east of Waycross that attracts thousands of visitors each year. Bears, reptiles and other animals in the park's zoo were also being moved to safety, Edmondson said....http://www.usatoday.com/weather/news/2007-04-17-ga-wildfire_N.htm?csp=34